Episodes

This week we focus on urbanism, architecture, acoustics and sound artists. We’re reporting from Resonate, a one-day conference in Lisbon by Resite, Maat and Meyer Sound that gathered an international crowd.

“Hands off my Johnson” has been the rallying cry of the Big Apple’s designers and architects opposed to proposed changes to Manhattan’s iconic AT&T Building. Our New York bureau chief Ed Stocker has more.

From increasing green space to reducing traffic levels and improving mobility, there are several ways to make city-living a little easier. But can you measure just how tranquil urban spaces really are?

For the millions of yearly visitors to Los Angeles, there is one landmark that perhaps speaks most clearly of the glamour and the glories of North America’s film-making centre: the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Tomos Lewis goes on a stroll.

The 2016 race to the White House was one of the most divisive campaigns in modern US history. One year on, we assess US cities under Trump and ask if there’s a silver lining: are they taking charge of their own futures?

It’s not all about pop-up cafés and gathering a couple of neighbours to set up a street market. Temporary urbanism can have a huge impact in cities, allowing planners to push some of their bolder and more unusual ideas through the bureaucracy of city hall.

As New York enters the new year with murder figures at a record low, we look at criminality in the US. We’ve also got a public-transport tale of two cities – Athens’ wi-fi wrangle and London’s Tube triumph – and a review of the smart cities at CES 2018.

As homelessness rises in London, we hear about a train station turning into a shelter over Christmas. Plus: the Galápagos Islands’ growing population, Los Angeles’ first mobile bookstore and an audio essay about Berlin.

We look at how New York has evolved over the past 100 years. While some might complain about lost grit and gentrification, our bureau chief in the city Ed Stocker feels that they are missing the point and that, in the end, a safer New York is a more open New York.

Ho Chi Minh City is arguably most well known as being the site of one of the world’s most poignant political protests in the 1960s. But for modern-day visitors it is know for something more novel: scooters.

Duration:00:05:27

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